Guide
What is a normal resting heart rate?
Sit still for a few minutes, find your pulse and count for a minute: that is your resting heart rate. For most adults it lands somewhere between 60 and 100, and where yours lands depends on more than your heart.
In short. The British Heart Foundation puts a normal resting heart rate at usually 60 to 100 beats a minute for adults. Very fit people can sit below 60, and some medicines slow the heart. Above 100 at rest is too fast for most people. Symptoms matter more than one number: if you feel dizzy, faint, short of breath, or your heart pounds or flutters, talk to a doctor.
How to measure it
Rest for a few minutes first. Find your pulse at your wrist or the side of your neck and count the beats for a full minute. Measured the same way, at the same time of day, the number becomes something you can compare.
What moves it
- Who you are. Age, health and sex all play a part; women tend to have a slightly higher resting rate than men.
- How you live. Smoking, exercise and alcohol all change it.
- The moment. Your heart rate changes from minute to minute, which is why a single reading says little.
Below 60, above 100
A resting rate below 60 is too slow for most people, but it can be normal for people who are very fit, and medicines such as beta blockers slow the heart. With fainting or tiredness, it is worth seeing a doctor. A resting rate above 100 is too fast for most people, and it can come with infections, anaemia, an overactive thyroid, anxiety and stress, a high temperature or dehydration. If it stays high, or comes with symptoms, see a doctor.
Trends on your finger
Rings measure heart rate at night, when you are still, which makes one night easier to compare with the next. In a 2022 study against a chest ECG, the Oura ring measured night-time heart rate accurately in healthy adults. A trend that changes over weeks is the useful part: what heart rate variability adds.
On our list
Heart rate trends are among the wellness insights we are working on for a later Lychnos Ring, not medical measurements; the first ring has no health sensors. It is in development: health on a ring.
Sources, read 4 November 2026: British Heart Foundation, heart and pulse rate: what’s normal and how to check it; Cao and colleagues, accuracy assessment of Oura ring nocturnal heart rate and heart rate variability in comparison with electrocardiography, Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2022. General information, not medical advice.
Questions
Is a resting heart rate of 50 normal?
It can be. A rate under 60 is too slow for most people, but it can be normal for people who are very fit, such as athletes, and some medicines slow the heart. If it comes with fainting or tiredness, see a doctor.
Is a resting heart rate of 100 too high?
Above 100 beats a minute at rest is too fast for most people. It can come with infections, anaemia, an overactive thyroid, anxiety, a high temperature or dehydration. If yours stays high or you have symptoms, see a doctor.